Officers James J. Wiselogel, President C. Francis Harding, Vice President Jerry W. DeCou, Secretary James Slane, Treasurer Frank P. Riedel, Sergeant-at-Arms Directors Samuel P. Templeton Jerry W. DeCou James Slane George M. Frier Frank P. Snyder International President Raymond M. Havens Kansas City, Missouri International Convention Saint Louis, Missouri Delegate: Edward L. Pottlitzer District Governor Frank H. Hatfield (20th) Evansville, Indiana District Convention Michigan City, Indiana February 21-22, 1923 New Members J. Frank Bellinger Harry L. Bryan George I. Christie William R. Coffroth Robert Friend Marshall Haywood Thomas P. Huffman Charles B. Jamison Harry C. McAdams John A. McCarthy Paul A. McLeod Samuel H. Markowitz James F. Phelan Ed G. Proulx James M. Robinson John Ruger Orion V. Shaffer Paul T. Smith John D. Sousa George K. Throckmorton Wallace D. Wolfe The District Conference at Michigan City voted to raise two hundred and fifty thousand dollars to build an Indiana Rotary Convalescent Home for crippled children at Indianapolis. This meant for the Lafayette Club about five thousand dollars. A final meeting of the investigating committee in July of this same year approved of the District action and appointed a committee to organize the campaign. Meanwhile the Indianapolis Rotary Club through a special campaign raised one hundred and seventeen thousand dollars toward this total of two hundred and fifty thousand. Ed Pottlitzer and Ernest Brown returning from the International Convention said, "Never have we seen anything like it." At this St. Louis Convention, perhaps the greatest in the history of Rotary there was a symbolic pageant that for sheer poetic beauty had never been equaled. The "Rotary Garden of Nations" it was called. The auditorium massed with humanity for the opening of this the fourteenth annual convention, was made almost dark; a trumpeter, and then a spotlight revealing the single figure of Columbia; a chorus of welcome by a large group of Italian singers; a shrill whistle and twenty-eight Boy Scouts appeared, each bearing the flag of one of the nations represented in Rotary; and then twenty-eight young women in classic robes, each wearing about her brow a band of flowers that represented the national flower of the nations in Rotary, each of these twenty-eight girls being a representative of one of those nations. A dance typifying the salute of the nations. The triumphal march from "Aida", the Stars and Stripes the central figure in the picture; and a great Rotary wheel of gold. The huge audience now on its feet cheering and cheering. No wonder both Ed and Ernest said they would never forget it. The Chairman of the Convention in greeting the delegates and guests said, "St. Louis, which has the culture of the East, the vision of the West, the energy of the North and the hospitality of the South, greets you." President Harding addressed the Convention one day, and Eddy Guest, on one of those hottest of hot days, when reading some of his homely poetry said, "This was the first time I have ever talked in public while in a Turkish bath." Copyright © 2000 Lafayette Indiana Rotary Club. Please contact Webmaster with any technical comments or questions about this site.